Star Wars Galaxy Guides

Ok, there are something like 15 or so of them, so there's plenty of material to write about. Pick one and go.

GG6 Tramp Freightors: Arguablly one of the most useful books in the entire WEG line. This is the main book for upgrading and improving your starship. Opens up the areas of trade, cargo-hauling, smuggling, and everything else you might want to do with a freightor. Includes additional character templates, some examples of modified freightors, and personalities of some NPCs who fly them. Law enforcement ships and such. Adventure ideas, legal problems, piracy, and more. Only short-coming is that it doesn't actually describe many different types of freightors. Almost everything is a YT-1300 or a Ghtrok 700.
Ranking: Essential
Usability: good
Availability: reasonable
Drawbacks: not much about different ship models
Suppliment with: Pirates & Privateers and/or Stock Ships

Only one I own, and a well written supplement. These older supplements were before the novels, or before the hoard of novels. The authors were careful about creating any sort of EU that might stomp on the GM's cannon.

I like the whole system for buying/trading for any world, be it stone age to imperial

12 official WEG books. GG13 was Gamblers & Scoundrels, but that has been lost in the mists of time and will be remade as the Phantom Menace book. GG14 is The Dark Side, a very nice book. GG15 is Attack of the Clones, of which a revised edition has just been published. GG16 is Revenge of the Sith, and is still in the works...

Of the WEG books, my favourite is 7: Mos Eisley, it really creates a living, breathing place where you can just drop your players and adventure automatically happens. 9: Fragments from the Rim is a nice little weird book, contaning bits and pieces of fun stuff to sprinkle about.

GG1 Star Wars A New Hope:
Mostly this one is just information and stats on every character they could squeeze into the book. Want to know what Tarkin's stats were? in here. The various fighter pilots? here. The cantina aliens? in here. Some back story and history as well.

Essential? meh, not really
Usefullness? kinda sorta
Availability? yes, probablly fairly cheap
Liabilities: no information on equipment or ships (most of which can be found in the generic sourcebook)
D20 Conversion: I'm sure it's probablly been done already in one of those "Ultimate Guides to _____"

GG2 Yavin and Bespin:
Very detailed look at two very different Gas Giant worlds and their environments and history. Includes information on all 13 moons of Yavin (3 of which are habitable), mining of Corsca gems from the atmosphere, and of course the temples and buildings on Yavin 7. The section on Bespin includes a wide variety of information, some maps of Cloud City, and information on various citizens. Both worlds have info on the native wildlife and what you might expect to encounter.
This was actually the first SW sourcebook I purchased

Essential? no
Usefullness? with tinkering, can be easily used as a basis for a variety of other planets, so yes
Availability? moderate
Liabilities: this is a read-heavy book, not a quick reference
D20 conversion: has probablly been done. mostly background info, so not a lot of stats to convert. Also, GG3 The Empire Strikes Back has additional information on Bespin not covered by this book.

GG3 The Empire Strikes Back
Like GG1, mostly just the stats of almost anyone who had a speaking part, and a bunch of others who didn't. This book is devided into Hoth Base Personnel, Imperial forces, Degobah, Bounty Hunters, and Cloud City. While some of the information on Cloud City is redundant with GG2, there is new information as well. If you wondered where to find stats for Dengar, IG-88, Zuckuss, or 4-LOM, the answer is here. Likewise for Dak, Hobbie, and Lobot, as well as Wampas. There's a section on strategy and tactics employed by both sides in the Battle of Hoth and a map of the terrain There's also an adventure in the back set for just after the Battle of Hoth, where the rebels are looking for a transport that hasn't shown up at the rendevous, and the party is sent to find it.

Essential? not really
Usefullness? moderate
Availability? yes, should be fairly cheap too
Liabilities: some information that we don't need yet another copy of (info on TIE fighters and super stardestroyers, updates of the stats for the main heros)
D20 conversion: I'm sure all the stats have been converted by the new books anyway, but the background information might still be useful.

GG4 & 12 Alien Races & Aliens Allies and Enemies:
These two books really go together as they have almost identical function: to provide the stats of virtually every alien race available as a PC and a few that would be NPC only. These are the books for sentient life forms in TGFFA. Beasts and monsters and other non-sentient life forms are covered in other books. Each entry has information on the life form, life cycle, dietary requirements, social dynamics, homeworld(s), and any special racial abilities. Also the racial minimum/maximum stats.

Essential? Yes. Both of them.
Usefullness? Very useful
Availability? yes, moderately inexpensive
Liabilities: For some reason, Ranats have a maximum racial total of 17D, which means any PC playing a Ranat would have to be force-sensative and have 1D in a force power. Other than that, these books only cover races in the classic era--nothing in the prequels.
D20 Conversion: I'm sure it's all been done already in one of those "Ultimate Guides to alien races"

GG5 Return of the Jedi
Like GG1 & 3, mostly just the stats of almost anyone who had a speaking part, and a bunch of others who didn't. This book is devided into Alliance Personnel, Imperial forces, and Endor. Naturally, there's the stats for the core heroes as well. Not much else.
Some of the side information is interesting, in that it was incorporated into Shadows of the Empire.

Essential? not really
Usefullness? not very
Availability? yes, should be very cheap
Liabilities: Very little useful information that we don't have from somewhere else
D20 conversion: I'm sure all the stats have been converted by the new books anyway, but the background information might be entertaining.

BTW: these are just my thoughts. Anyone who wants to is welcome to counter/critique, make suggestions, etc.

GG7 Mos Eisley
A general guide to Tatooine and the main starport city. Combines well with the classic "Tatooine Manhunt" adventure (I think they were even boxed together at one point) to flesh out in great detail (almost too great) the inner workings of the city so corrupt that the Hutts have lived there for decades if not generations. Includes stats on minor characters, likely encounters, womp rats, various equipment and vehicles, and Mace Windu. Yes, Mace Windu's stats were first published by WEG, over 10 years before the prequels were in production. OK, so this Mace Windu is a squib speeder merchant & general wheeler-dealer, but so what. Also presented are a few sketchy adventure ideas

Essential? no
Usefullness? moderate
Availability? relatively easy.
Liabilities: no prequel information, most vehicle/equipment/creature stats are published in other volumes
D20 conversion: no idea.

GG8 Scouts
Intended as a resource for playing scout-type characters or generating new planets, this book was fine for running a StarWars Exploring Strange New Worlds campaign, but saw limited to no use whatsoever with the people I gamed with. There are sections on the mindset/personality of the scout, some minor equipment, character templates, a few ships, world generation, generating critters and alien civilizations, first contact, exploitation and other trade, and an adventure.

Essential? no
Usefullness? moderate at best
Availability? relatively easy
Liabilities: no prequel information, most vehicle/equipment/creature stats are published in other volumes, making them more desireable than this volume. Many of the ships are unique to this book, however.
D20 conversion: no idea.

GG9 Fragments from the Rim
The first word of the title says it all: Fragments. The book details a specific area of the rim, then goes into personality profiles and material of some of the people and organizations opperating in the outer territories. The sections on Mercenaries, bounty hunters, and pirates are nicely detailed and both useful and highly entertaining. The chapter on the Force contains material that was brand new at the time, and much of it was NOT picked up in Tales of the Jedi companion, including role-playing exercise programs for jedi students to try to learn in an except from a jedi master's diary/holocron. Other chapters talk about News media, recreational activities, pop music (not just the cantina band), and other cutlture/background

Essential? not really
Usefullness? better than average
Availability? One of the better books, so demand was up, and also one of the last books, so print run is down.
Liabilities: scattered focus--doeen't really concentrate on any one topic
D20 conversion: Background info could be good, esp for the jedi exercises or criminal activities.

GG10 Bounty Hunters
This is a very handy book for anyone wanting to expand the use/representation/threat of Bounty Hunters within the game. Just as GG6 openned up new worlds with the rules for customizing ships and transporting cargo, this guide has lots of equipment (if you don't have the various technology books), weaponry, and rogue's gallery of many different types of BH in the GFFA. There's also an adventure in the back. What's more, there was a book "No Disintigrations" in which all adventures assume the party consists mostly of bounty hunters, for which this book is the perfect compliment.

Essential? not really, but could still be worth checking out.
Usefullness? better than average
Availability? Fairly easy.
Liabilities: some reprinted material (not much considering).
D20 conversion: I'm sure it's mostly been done, though the obscure characters in the Rogue's Gallery might be worth looking into and incorporating.

The first part has samples of different criminal stereotypes
Then some sample organizations
Then some info on the Hutts
Then locations
Then equipment

Essential? not really, but could still be worth checking out.
Usefullness? better than average, the Saprin organization is detailed and creative
Availability? ?
Liabilities: You'd have to scale the stats to your group's power level, buts that's easy with d6
D20 conversion: Scum and Villainy for Saga is similar